TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
Kluber throws one-hitter at Target Field
Corey Kluber allowed only one hit in nine innings–a home run by Joe Mauer— in the Indians’ 6-1 victory in Minneapolis yesterday. The only other major-league pitcher in the last five seasons to throw a complete-game one-hitter in which that lone hit was a home run was the Mariners’ Taijuan Walker on July 31 of this year, coincidentally also against the Twins at Target Field, although Minnesota’s home run in that game was hit by Miguel Sano. Source: ELIAS
Sano stars in Twins’ win
Miguel Sano went 3-for-3 with two homers and six RBIs in the Twins 11-1 win over the Rangers last night at Target Field. In the expansion era, only five players have produced two homers and six RBIs in a game at a younger age than Sano (22 years, 93 days): Ron Santo (21 years, 123 days old in 1961), Rennie Stennett (22/29 in 1973), Aramis Ramirez (22/33 in 2000), Miguel Cabrera (22/66 in 2005) and Justin Upton (21/268 in 2009).
Home sweet home
The home team won all 15 games on the MLB slate on Tuesday night. That’s the most games in one day, all won by the home team, in major league history. The previous record was 12 games on May 23, 1914. There were three major leagues in 1914, the National (four games that day), American (four) and Federal (four), which had a two-year lifespan (1914 and 1915). Source: ELIAS
Old man Hunter keeps on rolling along
Torii Hunter hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning which turned out to be the game winner in the Twins’ 10-9 victory over the Indians last night. Hunter, at 40 years and 20 days old, became the second oldest player to hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth or later for the Twins since the franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961. On July 10, 1993, Hall of Famer Dave Winfield hit a two run homer in the top of the ninth inning against Milwaukee turning a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead in a game Minnesota would lose by a score of 5-4. Source: ELIAS
Buehrle beats the Twins for the 30th time
Mark Buehrle registered his 30th career win against the Twins with a victory in Toronto last night. That’s the most career wins by any active pitcher versus one major-league team. Buehrle notched his first 27 wins against Minnesota while pitching for the White Sox and the last three for the Blue Jays. In baseball’s expansion era (1961 to date), only five other American League pitchers have recorded 30 or more wins against a particular team: Bert Blyleven vs. the Royals (34); Jack Morris (32), Mickey Lolich (30) and Jim Kaat (30) vs. the Indians; and Jim Palmer vs. the Yankees (30). Source: ELIAS
The Twins have faced Mark Buehrle 53 times (51 starts), the 51 starts being the most vs. any pitcher in club history, ahead of Tommy John and Frank Tanana (each with 47). Torii Hunter has 97 career at-bats against Buehrle, the second most against him all-time, trailing only Michael Cuddyer (113). Joe Mauer has a career average of .206 (13-for-63) against Buehrle, marking his fifth-lowest against any pitcher for his career (C.J. Wilson – .129, Paul Byrd – .167, CC Sabathia – .171 and David Price – .176). Kurt Suzuki is hitting .387 (12-for-31) in his career off Buehrle. Source: Twins Game Notes
The four losses to the Blue Jays mark the first time that Toronto has ever swept a four game series from the lads from Minnesota.
Cruz and Dozier send game to extras in almost unprecedented fashion
Nelson Cruz homered in the top of the ninth inning to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead, but Brian Dozier answered with a four-bagger in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie it. Seattle then won in 11 innings at Target Field, 4-1.
The only other game in major-league history that was scoreless through eight innings, and then went to extra innings tied, 1-1, after a solo homer in the ninth for each team was played on Opening Day at Kansas City in 1972. The White Sox and Royals played out that scenario with ninth-inning homers by Dick Allen (in his White Sox debut) off Dick Drago and by Bob Oliver (father of Darren) off Wilbur Wood. The Royals won, 2-1, in the 11th inning, on a walk off single by John Mayberry.
Brian Dozier hit his 23rd home run yesterday afternoon, tying a single-season career-high, done last season. Dozier has 28 doubles and needs five to tie his career-high of 33, done in both 2013 and 2014. He needs one home run to tie Roy Smalley’s 24 in 1979 for most homers by a Twins middle infielder in club history and he enters today tied with Josh Donaldson for first in the AL in extra base hits with 54. Sources: ELIAS and Twins Game Notes.
Another walk-off for Suzuki
Kurt Suzuki‘s RBI single capped a two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth as the Twins defeated the Mariners 3-2 on Saturday night. It was the seventh time that Suzuki has ended a game with a game-winning RBI while in the game as a catcher since entering the majors in 2007 (he has two more as a pinch-hitter). That ties A.J. Ellis for the most walk-off RBI by a backstop over the past nine seasons. Source: ELIAS
Big Papi and The Bambino
David Ortiz hit his 20th home run this season in the first inning of the Red Sox’ game against the White Sox on Monday. This is the 14th consecutive season with 20 or more home runs for Ortiz (2002-2015) and his 13th straight 20-homer season for the Red Sox (2003-2015). Only one other player hit at least 20 home runs for one American League team in 13 or more consecutive seasons. That was Babe Ruth, who slugged at least 20 homers in each of the 15 seasons he played for the Yankees (1920-1934). Source: ELIAS
Satisfying night for Phil Hughes
Phil Hughes tossed seven scoreless innings against his former team as the Twins knocked out four home runs and took a 10-1 decision from the Yankees. Hughes emphatically ended his streak of having allowed at least one home run in each of his last eight appearances, the longest such streak in the majors this season.
It was Minnesota’s largest margin of victory over the Yankees in nearly 24 years; the Twins last beat the Yankees by a margin of at least nine runs on July 31, 1991, when they did it with a 12-3 win at old Yankee Stadium that also included four Minnesota homers. New York avoided a shutout by scoring a run in the ninth – a shutout that would have been only the second double-digit shutout loss ever to the Twins or to their ancestors, the Washington Senators. That’s right. These teams have been playing each other for 113 years, but the only double-digit shutout loss for the Yankees came on Sept. 7, 1928, when the Senators’ Bump Hadley three-hit the Yanks, 11-0. (Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig accounted for all three Yankees hits.) Source: ELIAS
Guess who leads the AL in two-strike extra-base hits?
Trevor Plouffe’s three-run homer on a 1-2 pitch yesterday accounted for all the scoring in the Twins’ 3-0 victory over the Angels. It was Plouffe’s 20th extra-base hit this season with two strikes in the count, the most by any American League player. Source: ELIAS